You've probably heard stories from older generations about the past, and the prices of goods at that time are often mentioned.
At that time, a red 100 yuan was considered a big banknote, but it took a long time for ordinary people to buy food, and it was even a few cents a pound to buy vegetables on the street.
Not to mention the TV set at home at that time, not everyone could afford it, after all, a 12-inch black and white TV in the 70s was priced at 420 yuan that year.
So if you put it up to now, how much is this 420 yuan equivalent to?
At that time, 420 yuan was a huge amount of money
In the 70s, China's economic conditions were very different from today, and 420 yuan at that time was undoubtedly a huge amount of money for ordinary families.
Television, as a "luxury" at the time, was not affordable for every family. At that time, the level of wages and prices was very different from today.
Don't you think it's just a few hundred dollars? It's really too easy to buy a TV for a few hundred dollars.
In fact, the 420 yuan at that time was not as simple as the current 400 yuan.
In order to understand this issue more intuitively, we need to consider the impact of inflation.
Inflation is when the purchasing power of money decreases over time, simply put, money becomes worthless. So, we can't simply equate $420 in the 70s with $420 now.
How should we calculate the value of the 420 yuan now? There is a huge difference between China in the 70 s and China today in terms of economic strength, scientific and technological level, and people's living standards.
As a simple example, in China in the 70s, televisions were a scarce commodity, but today, televisions have become the standard equipment in every household, and even many families have more advanced smart TVs.
This change is not only in terms of price, but also in terms of technology and lifestyle.
If we simply adjust for the CPI, we may get a figure, let's say a few thousand dollars or more that it is now. But can this figure really fully reflect the true value of 420 yuan in the 70s?
Because behind the 420 yuan, there are still the memories and emotions of people in that era.
At that time, the family sat in front of the TV, watching the black and white pictures, feeling the freshness and surprise brought by the TV. That kind of experience and feeling is difficult for us to replicate today.
So there is no one definitive answer to this question, because it involves not only the conversion of economic value, but also the dialogue between one era and another.
In that era of relative material scarcity, 420 yuan was undoubtedly a huge investment, and it could represent a family's savings for a few months or even longer.
Today, although we can easily buy all kinds of advanced electronic products, the warmth and joy of sitting around the family cannot be measured by money.
When looking back on the past, you might as well have more emotion and cherish. I feel the great changes that the changes and development of the times have brought to our lives, and cherish the good times we spend with our families. Because no matter how the times change, the warmth and memory of that home will never fade.
Comments from netizens
At that time, the TV was an absolute "luxury", don't look at the more than 800 yuan a TV, 800 yuan is very likely to be the salary of an ordinary worker for a year or even more.
Until now, according to the salary of 3000 a month, who will use their salary of tens of thousands a year to exchange for a TV?
It's not that there are tens of thousands of TVs, what LCD screens or projectors, all kinds of dazzling, but for ordinary and most families, tens of thousands of TVs are still counted.
This netizen shared his salary level at the time.
As a senior part-time worker who has been working for ten years, fifty-five yuan was not considered an upper-middle class or an average at that time.
How much is the salary of a TV set of 400 yuan?
The age of innocence of black-and-white televisions
In fact, it is not only the black and white TV set of that era that is precious, but also the memory that can never be returned.
I vaguely remember that if anyone in the village added a TV, the house would be turned upside down at night.
I remember that my father added a TV set to the family at that time, ignoring my mother's abuse, and my father began to work every day before the sun completely set.
The large table in the house was painstakingly moved to the yard, then the television was carefully put on, and then the television was manually adjusted - the television was not as convenient as the remote control board is now.
After adjusting it, he moved out all the stools in the house and arranged them neatly.
By about 7 p.m., the people in the village had arrived one after another, as if they had been drawn by magnets.
Everyone huddled together and watched "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", which was really full of energy! After watching the two episodes, everyone was still immersed in the plot, talking about how powerful Guo Jing was and how smart Huang Rong was.
At that time, although the conditions in our countryside were not good, our family was always lively.
Adults get together to watch TV and drink tea – the big-leaf tea my mom cooks is really memorable.
The evolutionary history of television
Television, which was once the darling of every household, has occupied an important position in our Chinese family since the 80s of the last century.
As technology advances, so do televisions. From the very beginning, the black and white TV could only receive a few channels, and it had to be manually adjusted, and it slowly became a color TV, and there were more and more channels.
Later, cable television appeared, and the picture and sound quality were significantly improved, and the program content became more colorful.
Later, satellite TV became popular, and a small satellite pot could receive many foreign TV stations, and at that time it felt like the world had become bigger.
The good times didn't last long, and with the restrictions on satellite TV, those once familiar satellite pots and antennas slowly disappeared from our field of vision.
Today's TVs, although the screen is getting bigger and bigger, and the picture quality is getting clearer and clearer, but I feel that I have lost the simple happiness I had at the beginning.
Nowadays, we prefer to call these modern TVs smart internet terminals.
They are really much more powerful, you can watch all kinds of videos online, and you can even play games and shop.
The operation has also become complicated, there are many routines on the platform, and a lot of content has to be charged, which is prohibitive.
To be honest, for many families, the current TV has become a luxury that they dare not turn on easily, and it is more of a decoration there.
Coupled with the popularity of computers and mobile phones, everyone can watch videos and watch dramas anytime and anywhere, and the status of TV in the family is getting lower and lower.
Times are changing, science and technology are advancing, and those beautiful memories can only remain in our hearts.
Text/Editor: Xiaoyang Baa Baa